LLED 360

“Accounting 11 is a prerequisite course to Accounting 12.  This course expands on the accounting concepts learned in Accounting 11 and introduces new accounting concepts like depreciation, payroll, inventory management, and taxation to name a key few.  This course is ideal for students who are planning to pursue a career in accounting, business management, commerce, or an entrepreneurship opportunity.”

I am in Business Education discipline and what you see above is a course description of Accounting 12. I’ve read above description many times, and never gave a second thought to it. To me, the description was simple and clear. However, after reading the article, “A Focus on Vocabulary,” I began to wonder if it was clear for high school students as well. How many of the words above would be unfamiliar to students?

I asked a Gr. 9 student I tutor to underline all the words she wasn’t confident with. Here is the list of words she underlined: prerequisite, concept, depreciation, inventory, pursue, commerce, and entrepreneurship.This particular student wasn’t born in Canada, but speaks perfect oral English. It was surprising to me that she does not know what “prerequisite” and “pursue” mean.

As teachers, we make assumption that the words familiar to us would also be familiar to students. Teachers must realize that students often use  vocabularies orally without full understanding of them; thus, the students aren’t familiar vocabularies when they see them on paper.

I came to realization that vocabulary deficiency not only affects learning English and Literature, but also other subjects. Teachers of all fields should help students build on vocabulary. I believe that the learning begins with the understanding of the course.